1 The Ark Is Brought into the Temple Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lwas finished. He brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, and he put the silver and the gold and all the utensils in the treasuries of the house of God.
2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’householdsof the Israelites, in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lup from the City of David, which is Zion.
3 All the men of Israel gathered before the king at the feast in the seventh month.
4 And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark.
5 The Levitical priests brought up the ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy utensils that were in the Tent.
6 And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who gathered together with him before the ark were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lto its place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim;
8 for the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, making a covering above the ark and its carrying poles.
9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles of the ark were visible from the front of the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary), but were not visible from the outside. They are there to this day.
10 There was nothing in the ark exceptApparently the jar of manna (Ex 16:32-34) and Aaron’s staff (Num 17:10, 11) had been lost.the two tablets [of the Ten Commandments] which Moses put there at Mount Horeb, when the Lmade a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt.
11 The Glory of God Fills the Temple When the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves [separating themselves from everything unclean], without regard to theirI.e. assigned groups.assigned divisions),
12 and all of the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and relatives, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets
13 in unison when the trumpeters and singers were to make themselves heard with one voice praising and thanking the L, and when they raised their voices accompanied by the trumpets and cymbals and [other] instruments of music, and when they praised the L,saying,“ForHeis good, for His mercyandlovingkindness endure forever,” then the house of the Lwas filled with a cloud,
14 so that the priests could not remain standing to minister because of the cloud; for the gloryandbrilliance of the Lfilled the house of God.